After graduating from the Bristol Old Vic in 2011, Jack Holden landed his dream role as Albert Narracott in the National Theatre’s production of War Horse in 2012. This gripping play about the pain of war on the innocents has been a huge critical and commercial success,with most of the capacity audience rising to their feet nightly as the curtain falls, many of them crying.

Equally gut wrenching is his portrayal of Joe Bonham,  a young US solider in World War One in Johhny Got His Gun at the Southwark Playhouse last month. After being hit by a shell Joe wakes up in a hospital bed with no arms, no legs, no eyes, ears, nose or mouth. “He is just a torso and a train of thought.”

He is an active mind trapped and unable to communicate in his living corpse. He articulates his entrapment by bashing out morse code with his head against the bed post. But his anti war exhibit becomes an embarrassment that must be surpressed. The sight of him might scare others away from becoming soldiers.

The sixty minute monologue adapted by Obie-winning Bradley Rand Smith from Dalton Trumbo’s 1938 anti-war novel was directed by David Mercatili. Described as a brutal, intense one man show with an incredibly powerful message about the cruelty of war and the way the military treats those who suffer in its service. The Independent called it “unforgettable… Jack Holden delivers a stunning tour de force”.